The Silent Liar

“I did not do that!” or, “That is my work!” said every person who ever cheated.  Cheating cannot be justified.  Schools everywhere are allowing it when they should not.  Children think that they can cheat because everyone else is.  But while they are doing so, they are destroying their learning, damaging respect, and ruining valuable friendships.  When cheating, valuable learning privileges are lost.  Cheating leads to a habit that is very hard to get rid of.  Just because a good grade is within reach, does not mean that cheating should be the one and only answer.  

Cheating impedes learning skills, for both the cheater and those around them.  A college professor was grading papers, and noticed the same entry in all of his students’ papers.  They had been taking an essay from a fifth grade class about Paul Revere (ABC 1).  A student admitted that he wanted to cheat because all of the other students were cheating (ABC 2).   Tests have also shown that 30 percent of all papers have signs of plagiarism, meaning that there is no actual learning happening.  

While cheating, most respect is lost for the student who was actually performing it. A student who frequently confessed to cheating, said that he wanted his identity obscured, so that no one would be able to know that it was him (ABC 1).  Today, every college admitter looks at the grades that you got and if you are worthy of getting into that school, no one looks at how you got the grade (ABC 2).  In a survey that was taken, 7 in 10 kids said that their friends cheated (ABC 4).  

Cheating can destroy any friendship.  They will  not look at you the same way after you have cheated.  After you have cheated, they see you as a liar, someone who depends on everyone else to do the work for you.  No one wants a friend that cheats, they know that when they are in need of help, someone else will be the one to do it.  Cheaters are a bad influence.  If a parent saw their child with his/her friend cheating, they would not want anything to do with that child anymore.  They would think that their child would stop actually trying to learn and just cheat of of everything for the rest of their lives.  

While many think that cheating is okay to do, for reasons of a better grade, to get the job, or to get into college, and many more reasons.  It is WRONG!!  Cheating is an unfair thing to do to those who actually worked hard for how far they got, and for the grades they earned.  Many think that cheating is ok to do because you will have a better life.  What happens when all the work become a reality?  When proving what is possible without cheating?

Cheating is happening around the world.  People cheat in everyday life.  We cheat on papers, getting a job or a drivers licence.  It is so easy to cheat when the whole world is cheating as well.  All of the people who actually work for what they got, are put down.  Everything would be chaos in schools everywhere.  We would never know if a person was telling the truth on an essay, or if they copied of anothers paper.  Cheating is an unfair way to get to the top, and in more ways than one.  Don’t let cheating rule the world, we can all be a little better.   

The Mistake of Cheating

Who wants the label, “Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater”? Not many. But why is cheating so bad? Why are we not supposed to do it? That may be the typical response when someone is first told that cheating is not okay. We have all learned that cheating is bad at some point in our lives. Unfortunately, cheating still happens in schools. A lot. This needs to be changed. Cheating must not be justified in schools because it encourages a lack of integrity, students will think they do not need to follow rules, and they will never realize what they are capable of.

Cheating and getting away with it promotes dishonesty and teaches that integrity is not important. Michael Josephson, founder of the Josephson institute for ethics, said “students take their lead from adults.”  Adults are a huge example for both good or bad. Josephson also said that basically good kids are having their values “...totally corrupted by a world which is sanctioning stuff that even they know is wrong” (ABC 2). When the average person thinks of cheating, they usually know it is a bad thing. However, studies show that “Only one-third of students have ever had a serious talk with their parents about cheating” (ABC 5).  Although cheating may not seem like a serious issue, it really is.  Not only is it a serious issue, but cheating becomes a habit. “Cheating does not end at graduation” (ETS 2).

Another reason cheating should not be justified in schools is that cheating without consequences teaches students to think rules do not need to be followed.  One student said, “Some professors make it easy. They overlook even the most obvious instances”(ABC 3). Studies show that the main reasons for cheating are:  “Campus norm; No honor code; Penalties not severe; Faculty support of academic integrity policies is low; Little chance of being caught” (ETS 2).  Even if that is true, students who cheat seem to be using it as an excuse to blame someone else.  A college student said, “It boils down to this: we are told that cheating is wrong because we are attempting to earn a grade that we do not deserve”(Lahey). That sounds true.  So why do students keep cheating?  Another student said, “Everything is about the grade….nobody looks at how you got it” (ABC 3). But what about the rules?  Aren’t rules meant to be followed? Some approach this concept by saying, “It is just one time, I will never do it again.” They may think they won’t, but later in life they will find themselves saying in their heads, “Just one more time.  After that I will not do it again.” Once you break the rules, it is easier to break them again.

A third reason cheating in schools should not be justified is that students who cheat without punishment will never reach their full potential. A student named Mary said, “A lot of people think it’s like you’re not really there to learn anything. You’re just learning to learn the system” (ABC 2). Some students take their education for granted and don’t worry so much about what they learn as much as what grade they get.  Students who cheat are really “cheating” themselves because they are missing out on getting the education that is available to them..  Josephson said, “...if they approach it honestly, they’ll learn far more than they think they can” (ABC 5).  He also said, “students who don’t cheat will come out of college better, stronger people” (ABC 5). People who push themselves and do their best learn they are capable of doing hard things and don’t need to cheat.

It is understandable how some students may think that cheating will not affect or hurt anyone else.  If they don’t involve other students in cheating, no one ever has to know what they did.  It is just a test after all, and they are probably not the only ones cheating anyway.  Unfortunately, it is not that simple.  Not only are they hurting themselves by being dishonest and not learning the way they should, but they are also hurting others.  For example, students who cheat on a test that is graded on a curve will affect the grade of every other student in their class.  So if someone got 100% on a test because they cheated, no one would receive any extra points.  That is unfair.   

Many students try to justify cheating in school because everyone else is doing it. That type of thinking needs to be changed.  If not, cheating will continue to discourage integrity, make students think that rules do not necessarily need to be followed, and hold them back from getting the education they could have and reaching their potential.  Studies show that cheating does not stop after school.   People who get away with cheating have no reason to stop and will eventually be dishonest in other ways.  Besides, who wants to hire someone for a job who cheated their way through school?  How do you know they even learned the skills they say they have?  Who wants a doctor taking care of them who cheated on his exams?  No one.  It is impossible to know who will be affected by someone else’s cheating or what the consequences may be.  Cheaters may learn one day that it just wasn’t worth it.